A Background On Text Messaging

In the area of communication, text messaging is classified as the quickest and most reliable means. Its subscriber base has reached billions around the world and it has become popular for the same number of people. It is useful to know how text came about and how it started to evolve.

Text messaging, which has now been universally known as texting, is the method wherein short messages of 160 characters can be sent from a cellular phone. This short messaging service (SMS) has been a boon to many cell phone subscribers, and the latest models of cellular phones are even capable of sending as much as 20 pages of 160 characters each in a single sending. They are now known in communications circles as text messages, texts or SMS.

An SMS gateway is used to be able to access the text technology, connecting a mobile SMS service to an existing service provider, the Internet, PDAs, personal computers and even landline phones. There are also high technology Bluetooth equipment which can serve as modem for cellular phones to be able to send SMS using wireless networks. Both the GSM and non-GSM systems have been widely used for the SMS.

Principally, messaging affords the opportunity to send messages to other people regardless of their location for as long as they are within the range of the signal providers. Automated facilities are also enhanced by the SMS for buying produce as well as provide a host of services for the cellular phone. Text messaging has also become the trend in many contest mechanics and procedures.

Edward Lantz, an ex-employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was believed to have been the person to have sent the very first text message and it was sent through a Motorola pager. The first messages used numbers instead of letters and deciphering the message was necessary at that time.

The Vodafone GSM network was used to send and receive the first SMS messaging in Great Britain on the 3rd of December 1992. Neil Pap worth sent the SMS message using a typical desktop personal computer.

Initially, text messaging was targeted for use by the hearing impaired, and it was not fully recognized yet. In the early 1990s text were rarely used by cell phone users. But beginning 2000, there was a steady increase in the use of text. With the further development of the SMS, its popularity rose exponentially and the world was witness to a sudden surge of subscribers.

Today, there are around 72 percent of people from the Northern European states who use text messaging, and a good 85 percent from the rest of Europe and North America. Among the countries in Asia meanwhile, the Philippines claimed the top spot with the most number of messaging users. An average of 20 text messages per person is being sent by a typical Philippine subscriber. In fact, with its 43 million users, the Philippines is now considered as the texting capital of the world.